MSI has designed a new chipset cooling fan that is able to operate without electricity. MSI’s new chipset cooler, which is accordingly dubbed the “Air Power Cooler,” offers all of the benefits of a cooler with a fan without drawing any power.

Energy efficiency of fans can make a large difference, especially in enterprise environments where hundreds of PCs are running at once. Although passive cooling is always an option, it doesn’t offer the cooling capability of a fan.

The new MSI cooler isn’t a passive cooler but actually uses a fan to cool the chipset without using any electricity. Ironically, the fan gets its power from the very thing it’s trying to remove — thermal energy.

The system is based on a beta Stirling engine. As hot air expands in the system, it applies pressure to the central piston in the heatsink pushing it up. The piston's movement upwards rotates gears which in turn spin the fan. Thermal energy generated by the chipset is converted into kinetic energy.

The fan blows through a common looking finned radiator to disperse the Northbridge’s heat production.

MSI tells DailyTech that the system is able to convert 70% of heat power to kinetic energy. It is important to note that enough heat must be supplied to spin the fan blades. If the chipset isn’t hot enough, the entire system will not run.

MSI is working on the cooler with Taiwanese company Polo-Tech. The powerless fan is expected to make its debut on MSI’s ECOlution during CeBIT 2008.

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Actually, your comment made me think of something one of my friends did. He was in the Heating and Cooling business and was a self proclaimed geek. He modded his case with an actual mini AC unit that pumped cold air into the case via the side panel fan hole. The only problems with the device that made it not very practical was the water it produced that had to be drained in some fashion and the fact that he needed a very high powered PSU to run it.

Aside from it's obvious drawbacks, it kept his system running very very cool. He had an overclocked Core 2 running with passive cooling. In fact the only fans he had running were the fan for the mini AC unit, the one on his graphics card and the two in his PSU.

It was an overclocked Core 2. To get a Core 2 or any processor up on a good overclock you need good cooling. Typically passive cooling won't do the trick.

As for the condensation, he set up the AC so that the natural condensation that occurs with an AC unit drained outside of the PC. In fact the whole unit was attached to the outside of the PC case so that the inside of the case only received the cool air from the AC unit. It was a pretty remarkable mod except for the obvious problems I pointed out in the original post.

I am in no heating and cooling but I tried something similar to him. I outfitted my computer with one of those "window fans". So depending on the temp in the house I could set it to 'Exhaust'(hot days) or 'Normal'(cold days) and it kept the computer cool at all times.

Like you said though, it is not very attractive. I was using 2, 8 inch fans, so you can imagine how tacky that looked.